Weighing Your Treatment Options for Addiction

If you’ve come to the realization that you need professional treatment to overcome your addiction, that’s a good first step. In fact, you won’t get anywhere without such a realization, backed by a solid commitment to see treatment through to completion. The next step is to get into treatment. First, however, you need to take a look at all the different treatment options available to you and figure out which one works best for your particular situation.

Addiction is a Complex Disease

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a body of scientific research since the mid-1970s shows that appropriate treatment can help patients who are addicted to alcohol, drugs, or other addictive behavior to stop using, avoid relapse, and successfully regain their lives. NIDA states that based on this research, key principles (http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/TreatMeth.html) have been identified that should form the basis for any effective addiction treatment programs:

• Addiction is a complex and treatable disease that affects both brain function and behavior.

• Treatment must be readily available.

• No single treatment approach is appropriate for all individuals.

• To be effective, addiction treatment must attend to the individual’s multiple needs, not just the drug abuse that caused the individual to enter treatment.

• It is critical that the patient remain in treatment for an adequate period of time.

• Both counseling – individual and/or group – and other behavioral therapies are the most commonly used forms of addiction treatment.

• For many patients, medications are an important part of their treatment program, especially when used in conjunction with counseling and other behavioral therapies.

• Treatment and services plan for the individual must be continually assessed in order to ensure the patient’s changing needs are being taken into account and treatment and services modified accordingly.

• Besides addiction to drugs and other behaviors, many patients also have other mental disorders.

• Medically assisted detoxification is only the first step in an overall treatment program for addicted patients. By itself, detoxification does little to curb long-term drug use and abuse.

• Treatment doesn’t need to be voluntary in order to prove effective for the patient.

• Treatment programs should assess the patient for the presence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis B and C, and other infectious diseases, and also provide targeted risk-reduction counseling to help patients change or modify their behaviors that put them at risk for spreading or contracting such diseases.

• Treatment professionals must monitor patients’ drug use during treatment, as relapses often occur.

Use Resources to Help in Your Decision

Many times the best place to start is to speak with your doctor about getting treatment for your addiction. He or she can probably give you a referral or point you in the right direction, having assisted other patients with such requests in the past.
At some point, if you have private health insurance, you will need to speak with your insurer to find out what types and duration of addiction treatment your policy covers. You definitely don’t want to decide you want to go to a certain residential treatment facility only to find out that your insurance doesn’t cover this treatment or the facility doesn’t accept your insurance. If you’d rather wait until you’ve got a better idea of which facility or treatment center you want to go to before you talk with your insurance company, you can go through your health insurer’s benefits booklet or go on your company’s website (go to employee benefits section and check out your healthcare coverage). You can get a lot of answers going this route without making a phone call.

You may also wish to contact your employer’s Human Resources department to inquire if your company’s employee assistance program includes addiction counseling.

When you’re ready to find a referral to a treatment facility, use the resources of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which maintains a Treatment Facility Locator (http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/). SAMHSA is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and offers an extensive listing of licensed, certified drug and alcohol facilities throughout the United States. You can also call their toll-free referral helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

Another place to look for treatment facilities for addiction is your State Substance Abuse Agency, available through the SAMHSA site (http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/ufds/abusedirectors). States often have their own separate listings and toll-free hotlines, and information about accreditation.

Look for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs Specializing in Your Addiction

When you start investigating various substance abuse treatment programs, it’s easy to get lost. Avoid brain fatigue by using the advanced search locator to narrow down the types of substance abuse you require treatment for. If you have an alcohol addiction, look for treatment facilities that treat alcohol dependence and addiction.

If you have a dependence on drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, or prescription drugs used nonmedically, look for facilities that specialize in substance abuse. You may have multiple addictions, in which case you need treatment at a facility that is equipped to handle your treatment needs for all your addictions. If you have co-occurring disorder (substance abuse and mental health disorder), you need a facility that can handle treatment of both simultaneously.

Types of Addiction Treatment Programs

There are several different types of treatment programs for addiction. Which one is best for you will depend on a variety of different factors. We’ll cover some of those later. First, let’s look at the general types of addiction treatment programs:

• Residential Addiction Treatment – Residential treatment involves living at a treatment facility while undergoing intensive addiction treatment during the day. Duration of residential treatment is generally between 30 and 90 days, although some residential treatment facilities have longer-duration programs for patients who require it.

• Therapeutic Communities – Long-term residential treatment typically occurs in therapeutic communities, where patients may reside for 6 to 12 months. Therapeutic communities differ from other treatment programs in that they use treatment staff and those in recovery as agents of change to influence the patients’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviors that are associated with drug use. Patients in therapeutic communities typically have had a long history of drug addiction, may have been involved in the criminal justice system, and/or have seriously impaired social functioning. According to NIDA, therapeutic communities are now being designed to accommodate the needs of women who are pregnant or who have children. The goal of therapeutic communities is to get the patient to a point where they can live a drug-free and crime-free lifestyle.

• Treatment within the Criminal Justice System – With the vast numbers of prisoner population who are addicted, treatment during incarceration can prove an effective way of helping to prevent the individual’s return to criminal activity upon release. Treatment has been shown to be most effective when it continues as the person is being transitioned back into the community. This treatment does not have to be voluntary in order to be effective.

• Partial Hospitalization – This type of addiction treatment is for people who require medical monitoring but have a stable living situation. Partial hospitalization treatment programs usually involve the patient meeting at the hospital 3 to 5 days a week for 4 to 6 hours at a time.

• Intensive Outpatient Program – As the name implies, intensive outpatient program (IOP), while not hospitalization, does involve a major time commitment on the part of the patient. Such programs usually meet 3 to 4 days a week for 2 to 4 hours at a time. Often scheduled around work or school hours, intensive outpatient programs have a major focus on relapse prevention. Outpatient behavioral counseling includes treatment such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, multidimensional family therapy, motivational interviewing, and use of motivational incentives.

• Counseling – Various types of counseling (individual, group, and family) usually work best when utilized in conjunction with other types of treatment and follow-up support after treatment is concluded. Through counseling, therapists can help patients discover the root causes for their addiction, repair relationships, and learn healthier skills for coping with triggers.

• Sober Living Homes – After completing addiction treatment (generally residential treatment), many in recovery are still not
ready to return to their home environment. Sober living homes provide for a transition period during which the person in recovery lives with other recovering alcoholics and addicts in a clean and sober environment.

• Brief Intervention – This is only appropriate for those who are at risk for developing alcohol abuse or addiction, and not those who already have the problem. Brief intervention consists of several visits to healthcare professionals to discuss the reasons for alcohol or drug abuse and strategies for cutting back or eliminating such behavior.

Factors to Consider Before Choosing a Treatment Facility

Think about your own circumstance. Do you want to get treatment in a facility that’s close to your home so that family can visit you when permitted, and/or participate in family therapy? Or are you more concerned about making a clean break and being as far away from negative influences and your everyday environment that you are interested in an out-of-state facility or one several hours away?

What appeals more to you, a residential treatment program or an intensive outpatient one? That’s if you have the freedom to make the choice. You may find out that your insurance coverage won’t pay for the residential program, since these are almost always the most expensive option. Still, you may feel that the residential treatment facility offers you the best chance to overcome your addiction. If so, explore residential facilities that have a sliding-scale payment plan or offer payment assistance through scholarships or grants. Many residential treatment facilities have loan programs that you may qualify for to pay for a portion of your treatment program. It’s certainly worth looking into. All things considered, you should never let price alone stand in the way of your choice of addiction treatment facility.

Things to Check in the Facility You Select

You will get to the point where you have several addiction treatment facilities or centers that you like. Now you need to do a little more legwork to make sure these facilities meet the appropriate requirements – even before you pay them a visit.

• Accreditation and Licensing – Be sure that the facility has been accredited in the state where it is located. In addition, ensure that the facility is run by licensed and well-trained addiction specialists and mental health professionals.

• Effectiveness of the Program – While statistics don’t tell the entire story, they do carry a great deal of weight in terms of overall program effectiveness. Find out how well the addiction treatment facility has done in terms of numbers of patients served who have remained in the program and are drug- and alcohol-free.

• Availability of Aftercare Services – You don’t want to be discharged from treatment after going through the entire program only to be left on your own to manage your own recovery. Inquire about the availability and duration of aftercare services, often called continuum of care. Statistics show that those who regularly attend aftercare, counseling, and 12-step group meetings are significantly less likely to return to their previous addictive behaviors than those who do only one of these things. The purpose of aftercare programs is to ensure patients are able to re-integrate into their home environments with the support of others in recovery in their aftercare community. Aftercare may include a “Buddy” system, pairing someone new to recovery with another individual with more long-term sobriety, weekly group meetings, access to a large alumni support network, alumni social events and recreational activities, free recovery workshops, referrals for counseling and other adjunctive services, relapse prevention plan, and referrals to 12-step fellowship groups.

Visit the Treatment Facility before Signing Up

Naturally, you wouldn’t buy a car without taking a test drive first. You wouldn’t normally get married without thoroughly knowing your prospective partner – not if you expect to have a long-lasting union. The same principle holds true in pretty much everything that’s really important in life. And this is especially valid when it comes to entering a treatment facility for the purpose of obtaining addiction treatment. You simply must check it out as thoroughly as you can.
Points to consider include the following:

• Driving up to the facility, do you get the visual impression that it is well-maintained, offering pleasant surroundings, and appears to be a solid establishment?

• Pay attention to how you are greeted upon entry to the treatment facility? Look at the interaction of staff and patients? Is everyone respectful and cordial? Does staff appear willing to assist patients with any problems that you can observe?

• What sense do you get of the helpfulness of the staff?

• What is the ratio of staff to patients?

• How safe is the facility?

• How will your privacy be safeguarded?

• What types of living quarters are available?

• What are the amenities available to you and which ones are at additional cost?

• How often and when is family allowed to visit?

• Is family treatment available?

• Does the treatment facility offer modalities and approaches that suit your particular needs?

• Do you think you will feel comfortable here – given that you will be undertaking a rigorous and intensive treatment regimen?

• Do you receive satisfactory answers to all your questions?

Of course, you may have additional areas that you’d like to explore further, and you should feel free to do so. After all, you will be making a significant commitment of time and money in order to attend treatment here. You want to ensure that you have the best possible chance of achieving your goal of overcoming your addiction.

Resist the Urge to Go It Alone

It may be tempting to weigh the option of foregoing treatment and attempting to overcome addiction on your own. This is an understandable but often misguided decision. While you may sincerely want to beat your addiction to alcohol, drugs, or other addictive behavior, the fact is that it is very difficult for an individual to accomplish on his or her own. Physical dependency requires detoxification that is medically supervised. Long-term alcoholics and those addicted to certain drugs put themselves in significant danger of life-threatening complications when attempting to quit cold turkey. Even if you do get the drugs or alcohol out of your system on your own, detoxification alone does nothing to help you with your underlying need to use, nor give you coping mechanisms to deal with cravings.

Attending 12-step meetings, while a crucial component in overall recovery, cannot do the job by itself. You need a combination of treatment, 12-step group attendance, and continuing care in order to have the best likelihood of a positive outcome – recovery.
Weighing your treatment options for addiction takes a little time and careful thought. But the ultimate goal of recovery can only begin when you take this first step and embark on the path to chart your new future in sobriety.

Addiction Treatment Magazine » Addiction Treatment

Shopping

Options for the Beginner and Beyond: Unlock the Opportunities and Minimize the Risks

Brief, carefully paced lessons on options and trading strategies using verbal definitions and many trading examples for clarifi... Read More >

Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?This companion book to the HBO documentary of the same name sheds light on the hidden American epidemic of addiction. Blending compelling personal nar... Read More >

Drug Treatment Center | Weighing Your Treatment Options for Addiction

Weighing Your Treatment Options for Addiction

Shopping

Comments

Subscribe

Most Recent Information

Categories

Blogroll